Head North For Fresh Snow

The first of Norway's three glacier ski areas, Folgefonn, opened at the weekend for spring and summer skiing and immediately announced an eight metre snow base to start with, topped up by 80cm of new snow over the opening weekend - requiring some serious digging out of access roads and lifts.

The second glacier resort to open, Stryn, coming up on 24 May, reports it has a near 9 metre (30 foot) base waiting.
Also in Scandinavia, legendary Swedish midsummer-skiing-under-the-midnight-sun centre Riksgransen also has a good base and will stage the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships 2012 held this year on 15-17 May - so the 2011-12 competitive season is not yet over!

Scotland too has been having a white spring after a warm winter premature closed ski centres down in February and March. Since mid-April it has been snowing almost daily on the mountain tops and one area, CairnGorm above Aviemore, has remained open to benefit.

"Fans have enjoyed a succession of classic days on the hill in the last week and with the forecast set to stay cold and the possibility of some significant snowfall during the week there are opportunities for some great midweek snowsports with fresh powder to play on. The resort plans to continue to offer snowsports all week and will open lifts subject to demand," said CairnGorm Mountain Marketing Manager Colin Kirkwood.

Over in North America two of the three Banff resorts, Lake Louise and Sunshine, have been celebrating all time seasonal snowfall records. Sunshine is still due to be open for another fortnight while Lake Louise, which was due to end its season last weekend, has announced a bonus weekend this weekend to celebrate.